In Sudan, 3,000 Troops, Heavy Armor, Choppers Headed South

Bad news. Hovering over Sudan, George Clooney’s spy satellites have detected a massive column of roughly 3,000 troops, tanks, artillery, and helicopters moving from northern Sudan traveling south toward the rebel stronghold of Kurmuk in the Blue Nile border area.

This is very, very bad. It suggests the strong possibility that the battles and corresponding atrocities that have been simmering since the southern Sudan seceded from the North last summer could soon explode into something much worse.

“Since May, the Government of Sudan has used indiscriminate and disproportionate force, including campaigns to bombard civilians, in the three border areas of Abyei, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile State,” said Enough Project Executive Director John C. Bradshaw. “This irrefutable, visual evidence of massive military operations in Blue Nile State provides a human security warning to civilians in Kurmuk and the surrounding area. The United States and the larger international community should invoke the Responsibility to Protect doctrine to exert greater pressure on the Government of Sudan to spare the lives of non-combatants.”

Beware. In Sudan they know how to get their war on. The last civil war, which ended in 2005, resulted in the deaths of 2 million people. You can read the bowel-loosening post here.